And the rain washes it all away...

Black Saturday postscript...

It's raining- well not really properly- but I believe it might be raining in places it really needs it.
Playing with the dogs at the oval I hear the cold wind rushing through the trees and wonder if that is the same roaring you hear when the bush above you is an inferno...
I hope the money I sent the bush fire victims is doing its job and helping in some small way to ease the rehabilitation process. I hope what I prayed and am still praying is getting to God's heart and the healing is taking place in those shattered lives.
People who lived outside the area are still not really welcome in, especially in Marysville where there really is no town to speak of. Understandably.
It was so hard to NOT be there and to want to help when it was at the most crucial stage, but we had to be content with being at an enforced, yet practically caring distance.

Dreaming Green...

My dreams of a Community vegetable garden, it turns out- are not just my own!
How exciting- other people are thinking about this also, about the piece of land we have attached to the church, at present with an old under-utilised house on it... about creating a hub, a focus for activity, a source of provision for the wider community, about how we might create a vegetable garden there where we can teach and provide useful skills (and food!) for those who need it.
Reading back on my thoughts in February I can't quite believe how things are moving along, and how the people in my home fellowship group have been having the same ideas- which we are now sharing...

I will keep you posted on our progress. If God wants this, it will surely flourish.
Simon, our pastor- is teaching from Acts now- and the history and roots of the Church are founded in meeting these basic needs of people,- contact, sustenance, spiritual food- which I believe we should as the church be providing now- and even more so in these uncertain financial and climactic times. I'm excited to see how people are responding to these passages; are stirred up to think about the reality of how God was working in Spiritual and practical ways in the lives of those first believers. And importantly how they drew in new disciples to believing.

Unlocking the Past... I love love love History... especially where it connects to the present, and myself...

An exciting thing is I have recently found, through the wonders of the internet, and a couple of key contacts in facebook- my old friends from the Christian Community I was in from 1980-1985; The Truevine Christian Community to be exact. The joy of finding old friends is always great- but these are very special people with whom I share a unique and treasured bond. So I am overwhelmed and challenged in turns- So much water under our bridges, but the bridges are still standing- we shared SO much, our lives, our dreams, our brokenness...
so much has happened in our individual lives. It is like meeting an ex-partner in some instances, tentative, a bit confronting and then again it's like finding family- you KNOW you belong, always did and you are home again at LONG last.
There is some exploration to be done, and reflecting back, and then stretching forth in our new roles as individuals who are in our own lives, worlds, and yet joined by this common past and in most cases common faith.
It is a precious time, and I recognise and respect some of us feel differently about our faith, about life in the Truevine and are maybe not as happy to be connected again. But I sense a willingness in even those who may have given faith away, to at least satisfy curiosity and to want to touch those old friendships again. It's all good.

(Of course, when I say "all good" I am only speaking from my perspective- finding Truevine again has been and continues to be a positive and good thing in my life, and I believe in the lives of others. This is not to say that it is not also painful and difficult for some- a lot of people were married in the Truevine within that time, and some of the marriages have ended- other marriages have also ended since then. Tragedies and losses have affected many - and therefore affect us all to some degree. Relationships for some were difficult, and framed by the authoritarian structure we lived under- the fallout continues to smolder in some cases. Obviously there is still room for healing.)

The discussions and huddles over deep doctrinal things, less serious things, personal things, are largely respectful and appropriately considerate of everyone coming from 30 years of disparately experienced lives... so interesting, so challenging, so exciting!